Recently in Ukraine Category

Just in case you thought this was over. "Hundreds In Crimea Protest Anti-Islam Film," from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, September 27 (thanks to Twostellas):

SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine -- Hundreds of people have rallied in Simferopol -- the capital of Ukraine's Autonomous Republic of Crimea, to protest a U.S.-made video denigrating the Islamic Prophet Muhammad.

The protesters, mainly Crimean Tatars, chanted, "There is No God, but God and Muhammad is His Messenger!"

They were holding placards, one of which read, "America, Muhammad is Clean, You Are Humiliated!"

A similar protest was held by Tatar activists in the capital of Russia's Republic of Tatarstan, Kazan, on September 26....

The fact that this was an extrajudicial killing doesn't let Sharia off the hook. The fact that stoning is prescribed for adultery (as often as apologists might also try to deny it for non-Muslim consumption), where the murderers in this case apparently decided for themselves her actions were tantamount to adultery, doesn't let Sharia off the hook, either.

No, the simple fact that this punishment exists in Islamic law, and Muhammad himself participated in it, means Sharia's inherent defects where human rights are concerned have a direct bearing on this case. So does the broader sense that originates in Qur'an 4:34 that violence is an acceptable recourse against "disobedient" women.

The murderers' consciences were informed by these ideas, hence the lack of regret expressed below. "Muslim girl, 19, 'stoned to death after taking taking part in beauty contest'," by Will Stewart for the Daily Mail, May 30 (thanks to Ian):

A teenage Muslim girl was stoned to death under 'Sharia law' after taking part in a beauty contest in Ukraine.

Katya Koren, 19, was found dead in a village in the Crimea region near her home.

Friends said she liked wearing fashionable clothes and had come seventh in a beauty contest. Her battered body was buried in a forest and was found a week after she disappeared.

Police have opened a murder probe and are investigating claims that three Muslim youths killed her claiming her death was justified under Islam.

One of the three - named as 16-year-old Bihal Gaziev - is under arrest and told police she had 'violated the laws of Sharia'.

Gaziev said he had no regrets about her death because she had violated the laws of Islam.

And authorities are worried that this horrific slaughter will "ignite tension" -- instead of calling upon the Muslim community to renounce once and for all any and all teachings involving any kind of violence against Infidels. "Ukrainian Boy, 5, Slaughtered 'Like a Goat' by Religious Fanatic," from NewsCore, June 22 (thanks to DJM):

A 5-year-old Ukrainian boy was slaughtered by an alleged religious fanatic as he played in a sandpit with his friends, Pravda reported Tuesday.

The stranger strolled up to little Viktor Shemyakin before pointing to a tree and saying: "Look, there is a bird up there."

When the youngster glanced upward the maniac plunged a knife into his throat, Pravda said.

The June 18 killing has threatened to ignite tension in the town of Dneprovka, in Ukraine's Crimea region, after it emerged that the 27-year-old knifeman was a suspected Muslim fanatic, the Russian online newspaper reported.

The victim's three-year-old sister Lena Shemyakina and her five-year-old friend were among a group of young children who witnessed the horrifying attack.

Viktor's mother, named only as Angelina, heard their screams and ran out of the house to find her child lying in a pool of blood.

Police arrested the prime suspect, named by Pravda as Server Ibragimov, three hours later at his parents' house, where he was reportedly hiding in the loft.

He allegedly confessed to the crime, telling police that he was ordered to kill the boy by spirits.

"The man screamed Allahu Akbar (Arabic for 'God is great') when killing the boy, "said a shocked local. "The kid was slaughtered like a goat."

Other residents of the town said that the man had serious mental health issues.

Of course. They always do.

"Islamists See Opening in C. Asia Chaos," from Newsday, with thanks to JS:

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan -- The only splash of color in the drab bluish gray office of Kyrgyzstan's Coalition for Democracy and Civil Society was a wool orange scarf thrown over the back of its president's chair.

It was Edil Baisalov's souvenir from Ukraine's Orange Revolution that swept opposition leader Victor Yushchenko to the presidency. Baisalov had been in Kiev in December as an election monitor. He returned home inspired: "I was intoxicated by the protests, by the desire for change, the power of the people."

The popular uprisings in Ukraine and in Georgia a year earlier have fired up Central Asia's nascent political opposition and brought protesters into the streets of Kyrgyzstan.

The movement is unsettling authoritarian regimes who have ruled since the Soviet Union collapse 15 years ago. But it's also exposed the frailty of opposition groups who lack charismatic leaders -- and created an opening for extremist Islamic parties to gain power in a strategic oil-rich region known as a terrorist haven....

Although the Bush administration supports pro-democracy movements, the turmoil in the region also has created a potentially dangerous opening for extremist Islamic parties.

Hizb ut-Tahrir, or the Party of Liberation, has a following among the young in Central Asia. It has called for Islamic rule to replace secular governments and unite the Muslim world. And its pamphlets criticize U.S. bases established in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks to support the war on terror.

A senior Western diplomat in Tajikistan confirmed that Hizb ut-Tahrir's influence is growing across the region, particularly among the young who are looking for alternatives to what they perceive as corrupt, totalitarian regimes with links to the Soviet past.

The United States has not declared Hizb ut-Tahrir a terrorist organization because it does not advocate violence, but the diplomat said some of its literature is virulently anti-American and anti-Semitic and could inspire violence.

Leaders across Central Asia have banned Hizb ut-Tahrir. Kyrgyz security authorities have accused the group of having links with the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, which is allied to al-Qaida and operates in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Kyrgyz government has also warned of cooperation between Hizb ut-Tahrir and Uighur separatists in China, but has not provided evidence. Russia has accused Hizb ut-Tahrir of involvement in breakaway Chechnya.

The south of Kyrgyzstan is where Hizb ut-Tahrir is strongest, residential spokesman Seghizbayev told the AP. He said the group blames the government for every problem and makes promises it cannot fulfill.

Hizb ut-Tahrir has become more politically active. In Jalal-Abad, the scene of some of the fiercest anti-government protests, the group collected 20,000 signatures on a petition calling for more Islamic instruction in schools and segregation of the sexes.

The petition, circulated in November, also demanded state sponsorship of Muslim schools and restrictions on the sale of pornography. Candidates who espoused a like-minded philosophy got support from Hizb ut-Tahrir members.

Askarov Azimjan, a human rights activist whose office in southern Kyrgyzstan is partially funded by Freedom House, says Hizb ut-Tahrir has emerged as an alternative for residents frustrated by corruption.

"Most ordinary people I think support them now because they feel that in a democratic society it is difficult to get anything done without corruption. People believe that if the government was religious the situation would change," he said from Bazar Korgon, about 20 miles from Jalal-Abad....

From AP, :

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukrainian security forces seized nearly 375 pounds of a radioactive material seen as a likely ingredient for a "dirty bomb", authorities said Thursday. In a joint action, Ukraine's police and state security agents seized two containers of cesium-137 and arrested three men from the southern city of Simferopol on the Crimean peninsula, police spokesman Yuriy Kondratyev told The Associated Press. An unspecified number of people also were detained throughout Ukraine.

Cesium-137 is considered a likely ingredient for a so-called "dirty bomb," in which conventional explosives are combined with radioactive material.